Tena StetlerAuthor of Paranormal Romance/Suspense & Cozy Mysteries With Magic Spark!

Sep 14th Camping, Kayaking & Fun in the Sun, Twin Lakes

Our next to the last camping trip took us to Twin Lakes and the White Star Campground on the lake shore. Twin Lakes is in Granite, Colorado, near Leadville. Beautiful country. I hate to admit it, but this is the first time in two years we were able to get out and kayak. You know what they say, life happens while you are making plans. We planned to go Kayaking, but my latest novel, A Demon’s Witch, kept me leashed to the computer, whether at home or camping.
We had a wonderful time at Twin Lakes. Even though it was the end of August, the weather was absolutely gorgeous for our camping and kayaking. The lakes were smooth as glass most the time and others just enough waves and white caps to make it interesting. Our parrot opted to remain in the trailer and watch out the window while our dog, Mystic, happily jumped into my husband’s kayak as I pushed off the shore in mine, for paddle around the lake.
After spending most the afternoon on the water, we decided to drive into Fairplay, where we found the most wonderful Mexican restaurant, Casa Blanca. With our tummies full, we returned to the campsite for a quiet evening relaxing in our camp chairs around a fairly tumultuous campfire. Yes, I piled on the wood until the flames danced and shot toward the sky, safely of course. We roasted, ok, well, kinda singed the marshmallows, but they melted the chocolate perfectly on the sm’ors. The stars twinkled brightly throughout the Milky Way far above our trailer. Something you don’t notice with the light pollution inside a city. You could pick out several of the constellations, I learned as a kid and hadn’t thought about for eons.
The campground was full, but the camp hosts were great people and provided us with passes to park around the lakes’ shores where fees were required. Too soon, Sunday morning arrived we packed up the trailer and hit the road returning home, back to the rat race where the rats are definitely winning!
If you are looking for a quiet place to camp with majestic mountain views and lake access, Twin Lakes is the place.

Next week, I’ll tell you all about the Colorado Springs Balloon Festival.

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Jul 29th Adventures at Rocky Mountain National Park

Well, I gotta tell you, its been a mixed bag of adventures recently. First my husband and I, our chow dog, parrot and over forty-five year old box turtle went camping at Rocky Mountain National Park. On the way up one of the passes, the trucks engine just kinda went on the fritz, it was only for a couple minutes, but that’s enough on the steep incline of highway 36 to worry you for the rest of the drive. My husband, thought perhaps it was an overheating issue and the fan didn’t kick in on time. But still my heart was racing and it was hard to concentrate on the audio book playing.

Mule Deer Buck behind fifth wheel campsite

Finally we made it to Moraine Campground at approximately 7:30 p.m., maneuvered the truck and fifth wheel into our favorite site on Loop C. Set up our thirty foot fifth wheel, let the dog out for a sniff and fed everyone dinner. A large mule deer buck bedded down across the street in the brush. This was the same one at dusk on Saturday night that scared the bejeebers out of our dog, when it bounded across the street, to the side and behind our trailer headed for the meadow below.

Elk not far from our campsite

Then we attended the ranger talk at the amphitheater just a few yards from our campsite. The ranger related the history of RMNP, how it came to be and the different phases the park has gone through to reach it’s nearly all natural state. There were actually hotels in the early 1960’s inside the park. Eventually, the buildings were torn down in favor of a more natural setting. The reason we love the park. In addition we discovered, among other things, that the same F.O. Stanley who built the Stanley Hotel and was involved with the park was the same person who invented the Stanley Steamer. Didn’t know that. What I did know, was that the Stanley Hotel was famous for Steven King’s novel, The Shining. After the presentation we returned to our site, and relaxed around the campfire before calling it a day and heading to bed.

Emerald Lake

The next morning the milk wasn’t as cold as usual, but figured we’d, no, I’d packed the fridge too full and created an airflow problem. Yeah right. Anyway, went for a hike, took the dog for a walk around the camp ground and checked out all the other RV’s in residence. There was quite a diversity of camping styles from the tiny one person tent, to several large tents in a grouping and let’s not forget the huge 38-40 foot fifth wheels and class A motor homes. Everyone was enjoying the park in their own way. Upon our return to our RV, we discovered the ice cream bars were melted because the fridge was on the fritz. Hubby had to take it apart and clean out the carbon from the flue, who knew the fridge had a flue. Anyway got that working, but caused us to cancel our trip to Bear Lake. But attended the ranger talk again Saturday night, learned a lot about the lakes and rivers that flow through RMNP and how they changed the landscape of the park over the years. Did you know the Colorado River that flows at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, began as a trickle in Rocky Mountain National Park. But I digress.

When we left Sunday morning, the fridge was working and the truck had no problems returning home, to my great relief. Hubby said maintenance on both would be on going the following weekend, before we head out for Twin Lakes in a few weeks.

Once we hit civilization, I checked my e-mail and was over the moon to discover my novel, A Demon’s Witch, had a release date of September 25, 2015. It’s a paranormal romance involving Washington DC, a hunky demon hairdresser who is really a demon overlord of the western hemisphere, a saucy witch and her demon slayer brother, not to mention a faery and satyr just to name a few. Check it out preorder available end of August.

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